US Has Secretly Been in Combat in Iraq for Months

Last week’s “first of the ISIS war” combat death for a US soldier in Iraq gave way to admissions, over the past two days, that the Pentagon is engaged in ground combat as a fairly regular matter during what officials have presented as an exclusively “advisory” deployment. It’s also apparently not new.

Sen. Bob Corker (R – TN), head of the Foreign Relations Committee, downplayed the seriousness of the White House carrying out a secret ground war even as they were publicly telling the American people that no ground combat would ever happen in Iraq, saying “it’s the way our government is set up.”

Corker did however express concern about the lack of information given to Congress about the scope of the special operations ground combat, saying that Congress isn’t “even close to fully knowledgeable as to what is happening.”

Sgt. Joshua Wheeler’s death last week appears to have been the first actual death of the conflict, and covering that up appears to have been a step too far for the Pentagon leadership. This is at least the public explanation for why the Pentagon went from “ruling out” combat to insisting a ground war was self-evidence in the matter of about 48 hours.

It may be too soon to rule out mission creep as well, however, as even if the US has been in secret ground combat for months doesn’t mean the sudden admission of limited ground combat might not suggest the “secret” part of the war is going to transition into something even more aggressive.

"Special Operations" has changed meaning. It has now become what the CIA used to do, covert wars.

We don't really have civilian control of the military if we don't even know we are fighting a war. Civilian control means more than an elected official blesses the actions of the Deep State. We have a political system, and that is what is supposed to control.

Mission creep is inevitable is such wars. This is what's waiting for Putin down the road. He seems to see it and is trying to avoid it, but, un the real world, the only alternative to mission creep is to give up and go home (essentially, what Kissinger did in Vietnam). Neither Putin nor the US yet show any sign of wanting to do that.

No, Senator Corker, that is NOT "how our Government is set up." There is a piece of paper called the "Constitution of the United States of America" that "sets up" our federal Government. You, along with all members of Congress and our President, have taken an oath to "uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic." I took essentially the same oath when I joined our armed forces at the outset of the Korean War in 1950, and I have always done my best to honor that oath. Either you have forgotten your oath of office, or you are one of those "domestic enemies of the Constitution" whom I have sworn to oppose. You need to pull your head out of your posterior and act in accordance with your oath of office — or deodorize and vacate it.

The public can't know the Pentagon budget (especially the "black box" funds)
The public can't know CIA-spec ops budget or activities
The public can't know about secret deals with unsavory governments and organizations
The public can't know about secret trade deals
The public can't know about the extent they are spied on by the government
The public can't know about no-fly bans
The public can't know about millions of government "secrets" of the most secretive administration ever
Furthermore, studies reveal the the public has no influence over major policies,
and the public can be deliberately misled, misinformed, and deceived by those elected representatives,